Why it’s “almost useless and misleading.”
No, actually, it’s worse than useless.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Race And Science
“Stop trying to get me fired for things I didn’t say and don’t believe“:
I thought that writing 5,000 words about what I think genes influence and don’t, how much variation is likely attributable to genetics, and discussing the predictive powers and limitations of IQ would be sufficient to prevent people from deliberately misreading my post as an endorsement of race science. Sadly, that is not the case, and so of course Twitter is accusing me of believing literally the opposite of what the very first lines of the first post said.
The vast majority of (violent) protestors against Charles Murray, who insanely believe he’s a “white nationalist,” have never read a word he’s written. I personally have no opinion about average IQ of various “races,” but I think the notion that something heritable won’t have an effect on a population is the kind of nutty thing that only a leftist could believe. I understand why some are uncomfortable with studying it, but I’ve never understood why the fact that a member of a group that has a certain characteristic must be treated as a member of that group, rather than as an individual. But since leftists hate treating people as individuals, believing only in the collective, I guess that would explain it.
Lois Lerner
The Congressional committee is requesting that the new Attorney General do the job that the previous ones wouldn’t:
…the Committee found that Ms. Lerner used her position to improperly influence IRS action against conservative organizations, denying these groups due process and equal protection rights under the law. The Committee also found she impeded official investigations by providing misleading statements in response to questions from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Finally, Lerner risked exposing, and may actually have disclosed, confidential taxpayer information, in apparent violation of Internal Revenue Code section 6103 by using her personal email to conduct official business.
As you know, your predecessor brought no charges against Ms. Lerner or any other IRS employees involved in the improper targeting of organizations applying for tax-exempt status.
Disturbingly, in February 2014, while the investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) was ongoing, President Obama stated there was “not a smidgeon of corruption” at the IRS, preempting a fair investigation in which he had political equities. It is clear that when the DOJ announced in October 2015 that it would not bring charges against Lois Lerner, the agency was following President Obama’s signal on how he wanted the investigation to be handled.
Taxpayers deserve to know that the DOJ’s previous evaluation was not tainted by politics. Again, I respectfully request that the Department of Justice to take a fresh look at the evidence presented in the attached referral in order to assure the American people that DOJ’s prior investigation was handled fairly and to restore taxpayers’ trust in the IRS.
There has to be accountability for this corruption and tyrannical lawlessness.
The Susan Rice Investigation
…is expanding. And it appears that the FBI is trying to cover it up.
History will record that the Obama administration was guilty of abuses of power that Nixon could only dream of.
The Hypocrisy Of The Left
A long but useful and interesting essay from someone of the left who recognizes the problem and wants to fix it. Unfortunately for her, it’s intrinsic in the ideology, which fails of its own internal contradictions. And everyone should read Haidt’s work.
Why Hillary Lost
You’ll be as shocked as I am to learn it was because of Hillary:
The underlying truth — the one that many didn’t want to admit to themselves — was the person ultimately responsible for these decisions, the one whose name was on the ticket, hadn’t corrected these problems, all of which had been brought to her attention before primary day. She’d stuck with the plan, and it had cost her.
While the campaign projected a drama-free tenor, it was reminiscent of other moments of frustration.
Months earlier, Hillary Clinton turned her fury on her consultants and campaign aides, blaming them for a failure to focus the media on her platform.
In her ear the whole time, spurring her on to cast blame on others and never admit to anything, was her husband. Neither Clinton could accept the simple fact that Hillary had hamstrung her own campaign and dealt the most serious blow to her own presidential aspirations.
She is a corrupt incompetent hack, who no one would have ever heard of if she hadn’t married Bill Clinton.
Vitamin D
Should we be supplementing, or not?
As is often the case, the science is iffy. I’m taking 5000 IU of D3 daily (or at least when I remember to take anything). No idea if it’s helping, but I don’t generally spend a lot of time in the sun. In fact, I have a solar-powered watch whose battery occasionally runs down because I spend so much time in my office. So it seems likely that I’m somewhat deficient.
The Syria Strike
Why did they use Tomahawks? This is a pretty good explanation. As the article says, it was low payoff, but it was also low risk, and could be done quickly without having to coordinate with allies, as symbolism.
[Update a few minutes later]
What the Syria attack did, and didn’t do.
The Absurdity Of Prostitution Laws
The cheerleaders were just getting gifts from sugar daddies. It’s ridiculous to only call it legal prostitution if cash exchanges hands. Women have been offering sexual favors in exchange for things since time immemorial, and as long as it’s consensual, it should be legal.
Susan Rice
Here are the questions that she needs to answer under oath.
If Nunes is telling the truth—and despite a widespread effort to make him look like a liar, he’s been right so far—then this incidental collection had nothing to do with Russian collusion charges. Why has the media shown such little curiosity about the subject matter of the collection?
Yes, reporters, we know that “unmasking” is legal. So is meeting with a Russian ambassador during a campaign. And no, it does not vindicate Trump’s tweet. Stressing the legality of the unmasking is a way to distract from the real questions: Did Rice abuse her power? Who did she share it with? Why? Did those people then leak the information for political purposes? That is illegal.
That will be pretty challenging for her, given that she seems to be as big a congenital liar as Hillary Clinton.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sorry, Democrats, the Obama-spying scandal isn’t going away.
Nope. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation. He didn’t recuse himself from this.